N.H. Roll Call: Week ending May 11

Friday

May 11, 2018 at 12:11 PMMay 11, 2018 at 12:11 PM

School choice

House Bill 1636, "establishing a committee to study teacher preparation and education programs, relative to chartered public school use of unused school district facilities, and establishing education freedom savings accounts for students," was an amended bill that became the third effort by the Senate and House leadership to pass legislation to provide funding for non-public schools.

The issue of school choice and savings accounts has been an evolving one in the Legislature the past several years. Senate Bill 193 was introduced by Sen. John Reagan, R-Deerfield, and Rep. Joseph Pitre, R-Farmington, to provide funding for children whose parents want to send them to a non-public school, or do home schooling. Two weeks ago, the House voted 170 to 158 to send that bill to further study, essentially killing it for this year. The next day, an effort to reconsider that vote failed by seven votes. However, last week the Senate attached the content of SB193 onto HB1636, requiring another vote in the House on the issue.

The Senate voted 14 to 10 for the amendment containing the content of SB193. Supporting the motion were Sens. Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro; William Gannon, R-Sandown; James Gray, R-Rochester; Daniel Innis, R-New Castle; and Reagan. Opposed were Sens. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, and David Watters, D-Dover. All Senate Republicans supported passage, all Democrats opposed.

The minority of the committee suggested passing the bill with an amendment that it offered. "The purpose of the Education Savings Account program is to provide approved educational options that best serve students currently attending public schools. We have to ask ourselves should parents have another option for their children to succeed.”

This past Thursday, HB1636, which originally had been legislation just creating a committee to study teacher preparation and education programs, was up for House vote. The issue became whether to accept the Senate amended bill including the "Freedom Savings Accounts." A motion to "non-concur" was made, which passed 180 to 163. "Yes" supported the motion to not concur with the compromise legislation, which effectively killed the bill. "No" opposed that motion, so that a follow-up motion to approve the amended bill would be in order:

Twenty-six Republicans joined 154 Democrats in killing the bill by not concurring with the bill amended by the Senate, while two Libertarians voted with 161 Republicans to concur.

Transgender equality

HB1319, "prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity," was passed by the Senate two weeks ago by a vote of 14 to 10, but the initial vote was on a motion for further study, which would have killed it for this year. That vote failed 11 to 12, much closer than the final passage margin of four votes, and illustrated the importance of bipartisan support on the bill.

Voting for further study instead of passage were Sens. Gannon and Gray. Opposed to further study were Sens. Bradley, Fuller Clark, Innis, Reagan and Watters. On the final vote for passage, Sen. Gray joined Fuller Clark and Watters in approving the bill, while Sen. Gannon remained opposed.

All 10 Senate Democrats and four Republicans joined in passage. The 10 votes in opposition were by Republicans. The four Republicans voting for passage, Sens. Bradley, Gray, Innis and Reagan.

The bill was sponsored by several area legislators including Reps. Stone and Dean-Bailey, Bean, and Sens. Fuller Clark, Innis, Bradley and Reagan. It adds the words "gender identity" to state civil rights statutes to prohibit discrimination against transgender individuals. It has been sent to Gov. Chris Sununu, who has promised to sign it.

Sobriety checkpoints

HB1283, "prohibiting sobriety checkpoints," was sponsored by Reps. Stone and Wallace. It would have prohibited a law enforcement agency from conducting a sobriety checkpoint.

The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted 12 to 8 recommending passage. The committee reported, "Presently, sobriety checkpoints are already limited and require a court order. While no one wants to see an increase in DWI, sobriety checkpoints are not a solution to decrease DWI arrests. The committee heard testimony on how ineffective sobriety checkpoints are. There was further concern that DWI checkpoints invade a driver’s right to be free from unlawful seizures."

Reporting for the minority of the committee and recommending killing the bill, Rep. Pantelakos wrote, "The minority of the committee believes that sobriety checkpoints are one of the many tools that police departments have at their disposal. The circumstances under which a sobriety checkpoint can be conducted are highly regulated. If the police believe that the test is another way to keep drunk drivers off the road, the elected representatives of the people should not prohibit the police from using that tool to protect us on the road from drunk drivers."

The House approved passage, but the Senate disagreed and killed it 15 to 7. Voting to kill the bill were Bradley, Fuller Clark, Gannon, Gray, Innis and Watters. Voting opposed to killing it was Sen. Reagan.

Health care study

SB383, "establishing a commission to recommend policies that will enhance access to affordable health care for all New Hampshire residents," was sponsored by several legislators including Sen. Watters and Rep. Berrien. It would have created a commission of over a dozen members including the N.H. Insurance and Department of Health and Human Services commissioners, representatives of New Hampshire health care patients, N.H. Medical Society and Hospital Association, the University of New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice, the Business and Industry Association, and several legislators.

The commission would have been tasked with reviewing costs of health care and health insurance and review policies to improve access to affordable health care. A final report would have been made late next year with recommendations.

The House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee voted 11 to 7 recommending the bill be killed. The committee reported, "The majority of the Commerce Committee is opposed to creating yet another study commission with a laudable purpose that is in reality just another forum for those who want Medicare for everyone, i.e., single-payer health care. Given that there is an election coming up, the majority of the committee believes that there will be plenty of venues and opportunities for those who want an opportunity to expound on their desire for a single payer/Medicare for everyone health insurance plan."

Urging passage of the bill, the minority reported, "This bill originally was directed towards a study of ‘health care for all.’ As amended unanimously by the Senate, it creates a commission to study access to affordable health care. The preamble states ‘many residents of New Hampshire remain uninsured or underinsured, and costs continue to soar.’ Establishing a commission of practitioners, administrators, advocates and consumers to continue to analyze the reasons for these costs and to discuss possible New Hampshire solutions only makes sense."

The bill was killed 170 to 164. "Yes" supported the motion to kill the bill, "no" did not:

One Democrat joined 169 Republicans in killing the bill, while 8 Republicans and 156 Democrats voted opposed to killing it.

Collecting bargaining procedures

Senate Bill 420, "relative to collective bargaining under the right-to-know law," was sponsored by several legislators including Sen. Reagan and Rep. Turcotte. It would have declared that the term "public meeting" for the purposes of the N.H. Right to Know law would not include "strategy with respect to collective bargaining" if only one party is present. Current law allows strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining to be exempted from the definition of public meeting.

A similar bill was recently defeated in the House in March by a vote of 189 to 125. The Senate passed its version of the bill, SB420, on a vote of 12 to 11, with Sens. Bradley, Gannon, Innis and Reagan in favor and Sens. Fuller Clark, Gray and Watters opposed.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 4 recommending the bill be killed. Rep. DiLorenzo of Newmarket represented the committee, and reported, "This bill, if passed, would repeal the exemption from the Right to Know law’s public meeting requirements for collective bargaining negotiations. This bill is the same verbatim as HB1344, which was soundly defeated by a 64-vote margin in the House. The bill’s supporters have good intentions in seeking more openness in government, however, this measure will create more problems than it seeks to solve."

The House killed the legislation 234 to 95. "Yes" supported the motion to kill the bill, "no" did not:

Eighty-two Republicans and 152 Democrats voted to kill the bill, while one Libertarian and two Democrats joined 92 Republicans opposed to killing it.

Members of the public may present testimony in person, or by letter or email on any issue. To view video of legislative debate and action, or for a listing of bills, public hearing schedules, legislator contact information, and roll call votes, visit NH.gov.

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